Chapter 42 Him
Him
Then
The cops are at your door. It’s been five days since I took care of him for you, and honestly, I was expecting this sooner.
After all, you were the last person to see him alive.
Well, except for me, but there are only two people in the world who know the truth of that, and one of them isn’t breathing.
I wonder what you’re thinking right now, what is going through your mind.
I hope you won’t be too upset, because I’m sure this is the first you’ve heard of his death.
A brief report on the local news mentioned a body being found, but they didn’t name him—something about not releasing his identity until they had informed his next of kin.
Apart from that, there was nothing. No newspaper articles.
No follow-up reports on the news. It’s a sad commentary on the state of modern society that a person can be brutally murdered while walking back to his car in a parking lot, dumped in the trunk, and left there, and it isn’t worth more than a few minutes of late-night airtime on a local station.
Of course, it didn’t help that another poor schmuck went and got themself stabbed to death the next day, stealing his limelight.
I wish I could be there to let you know that everything will be okay, to comfort you in your time of need, but we don’t have that kind of relationship.
Not yet. Besides, I don’t have much love for cops.
They make me nervous. Honestly, it’s a testament to my devotion that I didn’t abandon our relationship the moment I saw them.
But I would never do that. Not to you, my darling Raven.
I’ve been waiting across the road for the last forty minutes, watching your apartment building, because you leave for work around this time of day, and I like to make sure you arrive there safely.
There are a lot of bad people in the city who might not have the best intentions toward an attractive young woman such as yourself.
You see, that’s the kind of guy that I am. Considerate. Loving.
But you didn’t leave for work. Instead, the cops showed up.
At first, I was tempted to follow them and slip into the lobby for a better look, but that would have been foolhardy.
Kind of hard not to notice a guy hanging around like that for no reason.
Even standing over here on the sidewalk opposite is a risk.
Which is why I turn and saunter casually down the street when I see the lobby doors open and the cops come back out.
Not that I’m doing anything wrong by being here, and it’s not like I’ve done that dumb criminal cliché thing of returning to the scene of the crime.
Unless the crime was what that man did to you after you brought him home—after you let him stay the night, which makes you the real victim and me your savior.
But the cops won’t see it like that, even though we want the same thing: to protect the innocent.
I step off the sidewalk and make my way past the iron railings that mark the boundary between public land and the small garden at the back of your apartment building.
I walk across a swath of grass between neatly planted flower beds to a gravel path, which I follow until I arrive at a large oak tree growing near your bedroom window.
The curtains are not drawn this time. I stand with one shoulder leaning on the trunk of the tree and take my phone out, pretend I’m looking at it just in case you glance my way, even though there’s only one true object of my attention.
But I don’t see you. The bedroom is empty.
There’s only one other window on this side of the building with a view inside your apartment, but the angle is wrong from where I’m standing.
I move a little farther down the path, and now I can see into your living room and kitchen beyond.
There you are.
Sitting on the couch and staring toward the TV mounted on the wall above the fireplace, even though it’s not turned on.
You look like crap, and I know right away that you’ve been crying.
If I got closer, if I walked right up to that window—which I have no intention of doing—your eyes would be red, and there would be tears on your cheeks.
My heart aches. I can’t stand to see you like this.
What did that guy do to cause you such upset at his demise?
You should be happy that someone loves you enough to stand up to him, because I know about men like that and what they want from a woman, and if you think it hurts now, he would have hurt you even more down the road.
If I had let him live.
But I don’t expect you to understand. Not yet, but soon enough, my darling Raven.
When the time is right, you’ll come to realize that there was only ever one guy in this world for you.
One man who could truly fulfill your needs.
And when that day comes, you’ll thank me for providing a release from your pain.